Swiatek cruises into NBO third round; Fernandez sisters, Dabrowski bounced in doubles

By Canadian Press on July 30, 2025.

MONTREAL — Iga Swiatek entered the National Bank Open with confidence after winning Wimbledon — and it showed in her opening match.

In her first outing since capturing the grass-court Grand Slam title, Swiatek cruised into the third round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Guo Hanyu of China on the Montreal hard court Wednesday.

“I think I played a really solid match today,” the second-seeded Swiatek said. “Playing the first match on hard court after a pretty long break from the surface is always tricky, so I’m happy that I just focused on myself, adjusted to the conditions and played well.”

Swiatek, a former world No. 1, hit four aces and converted six break points on eight opportunities, winning the match in 72 minutes.

The 24-year-old from Poland defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the Wimbledon final for her sixth career major. She also completed a surface Grand Slam after claiming four titles on clay at the French Open and winning on the U.S. Open hard court in 2022.

Swiatek said the Wimbledon title stands out because she wouldn’t have predicted a tournament win for herself.

“Even in my best season, I wouldn’t expect to win Wimbledon, so that’s why it tastes so good,” she said. “I never thought that it would be possible. That’s why it was different than other Grand Slams.

“It got me a positive boost after a season of a lot of ups and downs.”

In other notable women’s singles results, two-time defending National Bank Open champion Jessica Pegula of the United States held off Marie Sakkari of Greece 7-5, 6-4.

Sixth-seeded American Madison Keys beat Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-1 and former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan pulled off a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 comeback over Liudmila Samsonova of Russia.

A day after blaming unfavourable scheduling for her first-round exit in singles, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and sister Bianca Jolie lost 6-4, 6-2 to top-seeded Italian duo Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in doubles.

Fernandez, who won the D.C. Open on Sunday, anticipated an evening match Tuesday to give her more time to recover. The Canadian lost in straight sets in the afternoon, however, to Australia’s Maya Joint.

A day later, Fernandez had turned the page.

“Look, it’s over. Now we just have to focus on the present and the future, the next tournaments,” she said. “I’m still a little disappointed that the tournament here in Montreal ended very, very early … It happened, it’s in the past, now it’s to look forward and continue to work, and prepare for Cincinnati.”

In a surprise first-round exit, second-seeded Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand lost 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-7 against Americans Sofia Kenin and Caroline Dolehide.

Kayla Cross of London, Ont. and Toronto’s Victoria Mboko also fell 6-3, 7-6 (0) to Jiang Xinhu of China and Chan Hao-Ching of Taiwan.

In Wednesday’s night session, Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., faced 17th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in second-round singles action.

Bouchard, who announced the hometown tournament would be her last, defeated Colombia’s Emilia Arango in the first round.

This year’s National Bank Open — a WTA 1000-level tournament — debuted a revamped 12-day, 96-player format, with the top 32 seeds receiving byes to the second round.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2025.

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press